New Year’s Eve 2018

It’s almost over!  2018 comes to an end tonight at midnight. Tomorrow starts a whole new year. Does it really make that big of a difference?  I’ve never been that into the big deal of a new year. It just means I’ll struggle for the next couple of months to remember to write ‘19 on things instead of ‘18. I’m sure I’ll be crossing the wrong date out for a while.

The beginning of a new year is usually a good time to start over and do the things this year that we promised ourselves we would start doing last year. We’ll get in better shape, we’ll lose weight, we’ll save more money, read more books, and so on and so on. This week will start one of the busiest sign up times at gyms across the country only to be abandoned by March. Why do we do this?  Because our will power just doesn’t match the effort needed to fulfill the promises we make to ourselves. As the old saying goes, “our eyes are bigger than our bellies!”

This transfers to the Christian life as well. We say we’ll attend church more regularly, we’ll read our Bibles more, we’ll do a better job praying or we will share the Gospel with others every chance we get. All great things to strive for as a Christian, and I wish you all the success of accomplishing them this year if they are your goals. But we can’t do any of them in our own strength, we must let the Holy Spirit work in us to convict us to follow through on them. As Jesus told his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is week.

Spend time today praying that God will show you what He wants you to let the Spirit work on this year in you. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9.

Have a great last day of 2018 and God bless you in 2019.